National
About three-fourths of workers in the textiles sector are women and 70 per cent of the beneficiaries of the Mudra loan are women
Sixteen states have signed pacts with the Ministry of Textiles to partner with it for skilling about four lakh workers as part of the 'Samarth’ scheme on Wednesday.
Jammu & Kashmir and Odisha, which were among the eighteen states that had earlier agreed to be on board, did not participate.
Once the agencies that are nominated by the states provide training to the workers, they would be provided jobs in the textiles industry, an official release of the Ministry stated.
"It has been the endeavour of the Prime Minister that for a new India we ensure that each and every citizen who seeks resources for sustenance is skilled and it is this endeavour in the sector of textiles that Samarth took shape," Textiles Minister Smriti Irani said at the event where the participating states signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the Centre.
With the exception of spinning and weaving, beneficiaries will be provided training in the entire value chain such as apparel and garments, knitwear, metal handicraft, handloom, textiles, handicraft and carpet.
The sixteen states that signed the MoUs include Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Karnataka,Manipur, Haryana, Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.
Irani urged states like Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand to re-consider their skilling targets as she said that the goals seemed much lower that the demand for skilled workers in the textiles industry there. In Tamil Nadu, certain clusters such as Tirupur need more attention, she said.
The North Eastern States, too, need to review their targets for skilling and should develop the silk and jute sector, Irani pointed out.
The Minister added that she would be visiting the training facilities in different States to monitor the implementation of the programme.
About three-fourths of workers in the textiles sector are women and 70 per cent of the beneficiaries of the Mudra loan are women.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for the ‘Samarth’ Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS) from 2017-18 to 2019-20 to meet the skill requirements of textiles industry. The scheme aims at skill development of 10 lakh youth up to 2020 with a projected outlay of Rs 1300 crore.
Source: The Business Line
MUMBAI: A slowdown in briefs can be revealing, according to Alan Greenspan. Innerwear sales growth fell sharply in the June quarter, demonstrating the relevance of the so-called ‘men’s underwear index,’ as Indian consumers struggled to stretch budgets to cover discretionary spending.
Conceived by former US Federal Reserve Board chairman Greenspan in the late 1970s, the index suggests that declines in the sale of men’s underwear indicate a poor overall state of the economy, while upswings reflect the opposite.
Quarterly performance at the top four listed innerwear firms were the weakest in a decade. Sales of Page Industries, which sells the Jockey brand of innerwear, grew 2%, its slowest expansion since 2008. That of Dollar Industries and VIP Clothing declined 4% and 20%, respectively. Lux Industries’ sales were flat.
“The market segment at this point of time is not at its best,” Page Industries CEO Vedji Ticku told analysts last week.
Source: The Economic Times
Back to top
Senior officials of 16 countries, including India, China and Australia, which are negotiating mega free trade agreement RCEP will meet in Indonesia next week to iron out differences in areas such as goods and services, an official said.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement is being negotiated by 10 Asean group members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
“This will be an inter-sessional meeting before a formal round of talks. So far 27 rounds of talks have been held,” the official said.
The member countries are yet to arrive at a number of goods over which import duties will be eliminated or significantly reduced.
Similarly, talks on liberalising rules for trade of services, a key area of interest for India, too are moving slowly.
Indian industry has raised concerns over the presence of China in the grouping with which India has a trade deficit of over $50 billion.
Sectors including dairy, metals, electronics, chemicals, and textiles have urged the government to not agree on duty cut in these segments.
Amul, which contributes about 4 per cent to India’s total dairy production, has sought exclusion of all dairy and dairy products from any liberalisation. Australia and New Zealand are among the largest players in the dairy sector in the world.
Source: The Business Line
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Thursday met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and officials of her ministry to find solutions to the economic slowdown that has eroded wealth and hit jobs. Sources said the government might soon provide a broad stimulus package or a sector-specific booster dose.
There might also be some relief to foreign portfolio investors from the super-rich surcharge, announced in the Budget.
But, a cut in the goods and services tax (GST) on motor vehicles — one of the worst-hit sectors — was unlikely, said sources, adding that the government believed the sector was going through a cyclical downturn.
“The Centre will assess the potential revenue loss from any cut in the GST rate for four- and two-wheelers before proposing it to the GST Council,” said a government source. The current GST rate is 28 per cent.
The meeting on Thursday took place hours after Modi addressed the nation from the historical Red Fort in Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day. Officials aware of the deliberations said plans were being firmed up for any stimulus package or sector-specific measures. “The broad consensus was that steps will be taken by the government to arrest the slowdown in the economy. The contours are being drawn up now,” said an official.
Sitharaman and the officials also briefed the PM about the series of meetings they had with various sectors last week.
Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur and finance ministry officials had held meetings with bankers, micro, medium and small enterprises, automobile sector representatives, industry bodies, investors and market participants, and real estate companies and home owners.
In the immediate term, the finance ministry is looking for ways to support foreign portfolio investors who are affected by the super-rich surcharge. An announcement on this is expected soon, officials said.
These steps could include exempting or ring-fencing of FPIs, which are structured as trusts or associations of person — a step which requires only a circular or reducing the impact of the tax by grandfathering income generated by FPIs for a few months. Such a move will reduce the impact of the tax. Another option is not taxing FPIs on their move from the trust structure to a company structure.
The sources said there were two meetings on Thursday.
First, Sitharaman and senior bureaucrats of the finance ministry met Modi and briefed him on the reasons for the slowdown in the economy and its long-term impact.
The sectors discussed were automobiles, fast-moving consumer goods, steel, textiles, and overall exports. Only officials talked in this meeting and Modi did not give his views. He wanted to understand the issues, said the sources.
A second meeting was held between Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra and senior North Block officials. More details were discussed on the road ahead and the steps to be taken.
“Regarding the auto sector, the view in the government is that it is a cyclical slowdown. Fiscally, it is a tough year. We have to look at the implications of any GST rate cut,” an official said, adding that something akin to a “cost-benefit” analysis of a rate cut will be done by the revenue department.
With sales of cars, tractors and two-wheelers declining to a 19-year low, reports suggest 300 dealerships have been shut down and around 230,000 jobs have been axed in the sector. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says about 1 million jobs have been hit in the auto-component manufacturing industry.
Direct tax collections have grown by only 9.7 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, against the Budget projection of 18.6 per cent over the actual figures of 2018-19.
Growth in GST collection till July, too, has been only 9 per cent as against 18 per cent estimated in the Union Budget.
India’s economic growth has slowed to 6.8 per cent in 2018-19 — the slowest pace since 2014-15, consumer confidence is waning and foreign direct investment has reached plateau.
International trade and currency war is aggravating the problem. The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das had earlier this month said the slowdown is more cyclical than structural and the growth is expected to review by the fourth quarter.
Source: The Business Standard
Trump Threatens to pull US out of global body if its concerns are not addressed
Agencies US President Donald Trump has said India and China are no longer “developing nations”, and are “taking advantage” of the tag from the WTO. He will not let it happen any more, he asserted.
He further threatened to pull the US out of the WTO over what he described as the organisation’s unfair treatment of his country.
Tariff rows
Trump, championing his ‘America First’ policy, has been a vocal critic of India for levying “tremendously high” duties on US products and has described the country as a “tariff king”. The US and China are currently engaged in a bruising trade war after Trump imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated.
Last month, Trump had asked the WTO to define how it designates the developing-country status, a move apparently aimed at singling out countries such as China, Turkey and India, which are getting lenient treatment under global trade rules. Addressing a gathering in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump said India and China are no longer developing nations and as such they cannot enjoy benefits from the WTO.
“They (WTO) view certain countries like China, India...as growing nations. Well, they have grown and they had tremendous advantages. We’re not letting that happen any more. Everybody is growing but us,” he said. “They (India and China) were taking advantage of us for years and years,” he added.
The US does not need the WTO if the global body fails to address loopholes that favour certain nations, he said.
Reports further quoted Trump as saying the WTO was “broken” as “the world’s richest countries” claim to be developing countries and get special treatment to avoid WTO rules.
Source: The Business Line
While the Sept quarter may show weakness, analysts are hopeful of a recovery in the second half of the fiscal.
Net profit of a sample of 2,037 companies excluding banks and finance companies fell 12.8% in the quarter from the year earlier.
India Inc’s growth engine slowed in the June quarter amid sluggish demand across sectors and the base effect in the form of a strong expansion in the year-ago period, reflecting the overall slowdown in the economy.
While the September quarter is likely to show similar weakness, some analysts are hopeful of a recovery in the second half of the fiscal because of the festive season.
Net profit of a sample of 2,037 companies excluding banks and finance companies fell 12.8% in the quarter from the year earlier. Net sales growth of 5.5% was in single digits for the second consecutive quarter.
In the year-ago quarter, earnings had jumped by 31.2% while sales had grown at a faster pace of 18.1%. “Overall, the performance in terms of top line was in line with expectations but results disappointed on margin front,” said Deepak Jasani, retail research head, HDFC Securities. “This was despite soft commodity prices and cost-control initiatives. Outlook of managements have turned extremely cautious across the board.”
The operating margin contracted by nearly 80 basis points to 14.9% from the year-ago level. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
ET reported on August 15 that a stimulus programme to revive growth could be in the works with the finance ministry briefing Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the economic situation. That could include measures to boost demand, industry-specific steps and possible relief for foreign portfolio investors from the super-rich surcharge.
With the inclusion of banks and finance companies, sales and profit growth of a larger sample of 2,381 companies improved to 7.1% and 5.1%, respectively, reflecting the improved performance of some lenders fuelled by improving asset quality and therefore lower provisioning.
Select companies from a handful of sectors including banking and finance, cement, paint, pharma and sugar reported better performance in the June quarter. On the other hand, the performance of automobiles and ancillaries, chemicals, metals and mining, power and oil & gas sectors was less than encouraging.
Some analysts expect a recovery in the last two quarters of the fiscal. According to a recent report by Emkay Research, the festival season, anticipated government efforts to boost demand through higher expenditure or tax sops, and a likely deal ramp-up for software companies may support growth in the second half of FY20.
Jasani of HDFC Securities warned against over-optimism. “Management commentary and channel checks have turned negative, indicating overall demand weakness due to liquidity, weak sentiments and rural slowdown,” he said. “A lacklustre festival season is set to compound problems for India Inc.”
On the positive side, companies are in the process of restructuring their capital allocation to reduce dependence on long-term borrowings. “One relieving point was that promoter pledges have generally reduced due to pressure from lenders,” said Jasani.
Source: The Economic Times
Back to top
Sports footwear and apparel will be hit the hardest among many other sporting goods by the fourth round of tariffs to be imposed by the U.S. administration on Chinese-made products, said the industry on Wednesday.
The whole sports and fitness industry will be impacted with many products targeted, said the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) office earlier released List 4 of tariffs on 300 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese goods. The new 10 percent tariffs were set to take effect in two stages this year, Sept. 1 and Dec. 15 respectively.
While the tariffs for List 4A targeting sports footwear and textile products will come into effect on Sept. 1, U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday postponed the duties on List 4B which covers cellphones, laptop computers and toys to Dec. 15, sometime after the start of the Christmas shopping spree.
Grace Huang, president of San Francisco-based Mandarin Business Association, said she has seen a remarkable increase in the prices of imported Chinese footwear since early this year.
Huang's family operates a footwear factory in China and exports 30 million pairs of shoes to the U.S. and European markets. "With the cost increased, U.S. consumers will have to pay more for the same products," she said.
Apart from the hardest-hit footwear and apparel, sports equipment, headgear and components are also tagged for new tariffs, said the SFIA, which represents more than 1,000 sporting goods and fitness brands, manufacturers, retailers and marketers in the United States.
Following a meeting with the USTR on Tuesday, Bill Sells, senior vice president of government and public affairs at the SFIA, said in a statement on Wednesday that there will be no grace period for the targeted products on the water after Sept. 1.
"Any Chinese imports not unloaded at a U.S. port by Sept. 1 will be subject to the new tariffs, unless they have received an exemption or exclusion," said the statement.
The SFIA has been engaged in mobilizing its members to petition for exemption from the tariffs since the beginning of the trade disputes between the two countries last year.
It also promised to continue to discourage the U.S. administration from increasing import duties on Chinese products, as China plays a crucial role for many American manufacturers.
For the U.S. ports and fitness industry, China has become one of the most important production source countries, with companies from every sector selling goods to the U.S. market, according to the SFIA.
The booming sports and fitness industry in the United States employs more than 375,000 people and generates 150 billion dollars of revenue in domestic wholesale business, according to the organization.
Source: Xinhua
Exporters in the Philippines want continuation of tax incentives for the garment-textile sector, saying such a step will be crucial in getting multinationals fleeing the US-China trade conflict to relocate to the country. The Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines feels the second tax reform package should retain incentives to help in revival efforts.
Association president Robert M Young said the package should be different from the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High Quality Opportunities (Trabaho) bill in the 17th Congress, which proposed the reduction of the country’s corporate income tax (CIT) rate at the expense of incentives granted to economic zone firms, according to a newspaper report.
Young, who is also the trustee for the textile, yarn and fabric sector of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., argued that the country’s investment package should be comprehensive enough to serve as a magnet for the transfer of import orders, as the trade conflict between the United States and China hurts multinational businesses.
The Philippines has benefitted only in a very small manner, as it is not ready and lacks competent manufacturers and locally-milled textile as well as required accessories, Young explained.
The Philippines catered to only 10 per cent of the relocated garment orders from China, as most of the orders went to manufacturing powerhouse Vietnam, according to him.
To revive the industry, Young said the government should provide more—and not reduce—tax perks for garment manufacturers, such as reducing the 12- percent value-added tax, granting a special concession power rate and providing incentives to compensate labour rate differential.
The government can also extend the duty-free importation of textile machinery and equipment and regulate technical importation to assist industry players, he suggested.
Young also asked the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) to sponsor a technology course on garments and textile in line with changes brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. (DS)
Source: Fibre2Fashion
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production fell 0.2% in July, as factory activity slumped in a worrisome sign for the economy.
The Federal Reserve said Thursday that the overall decline was caused primarily by a 0.4% drop last month in manufacturing production. Output decreased for autos, fabricated metals, wood products, textiles and plastics and rubber products.
Over the past 12 months, factory production has fallen 0.5%. Manufacturers' struggles reflect a global softening in growth that has been magnified by President Donald Trump's use of tariffs to escalate a trade war with China. The risks have been great enough that the financial markets on Wednesday flashed signs of a possible recession. The interest charged on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes fell below the rate charged on 2-year notes, usually an indicator that investors see near-term problems that could cause a downturn.
Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said the trade war is weighing heavily on manufacturers.
"Uncertainty over which way it is headed, or how painful it will be, is preventing businesses from moving too far forward with spending, investing, hiring plans," she said.
The declining output at factories has led some analysts and politicians to suggest that manufacturing has entered into its own recession. But other indicators still show growth. The pace of manufacturing job growth has slowed, but the sector is not beset by layoffs. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, said earlier this month that its survey shows the sector is still expanding, though it has suffered from a slowdown.
Other components of the Fed's industrial production report were mixed.
Production at the nation's utilities increased 3.1%. Production at mines, a sector that also covers oil and gas drilling, fell 1.8% as Hurricane Barry temporarily halted oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico.
More plant equipment is sitting idle. Capacity utilization slipped in July to 77.5%, down 2.2 points from a year ago.
Source: Associated Press
Plano, Texas – JCPenney will not chase sales increases at the expense of profit, CEO Jill Soltau told analysts today.
Speaking during the company’s second quarter conference call, Soltau said she is pleased with the progress the company is making against its plan.
“We are re-establishing and rebuilding the foundational practices need to strengthen our day to day business,” she added.
During the quarter, JCPenney improved the cost of goods sold by lowering permanent markdowns and increased selling margin in stores and online. It also exited the major appliance and in-store fuOn the subject of tariffs, Soltau said the company has been meaningfully diversifying its pool of sourcing countries for some time and was minimally impacted by the first three tariff lists. The company is evaluating the potential impact of the fourth, she added.
For the quarter ended Aug. 3, net loss shrank to $48 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, from a net loss of $101 million, or $0.32 per diluted share. Sales fell 9.2% to $2.51 billion. Comp decreased 9.0%. Excluding the impact of exiting the major appliance and furniture businesses, comp fell 6.0%.
Source: The Home Textiles Today
he hemp plant is one of the oldest cultivated crops utilised by humans, having been used for paper, textiles and food for more than 10,000 years.
The Columbia History of the World reveals that the oldest relic of human history is a scrap of fabric made of hemp dating back to 8000BC.
Back in the 18th century, The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper, as was the well-known Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Even some ancient Bible papers still remain made of hemp to this day.
The global industrial hemp market is predicted to experience huge progress, with a projected annual growth rate of 18.3% from 2018 to 2027. The report predicts that within the hemp sector, CBD will experience the highest annual growth rate, boasting a 18.6% rise, dominating all other segments within the hemp market.
There has been a meteoric 368% rise in the number of acres taken up by hemp farming over the past year, beating the likes of maple, flax, hazelnuts and oranges with ease. Last recorded in August 2018, there were 27,424 acres of hemp being grown across the US, with that number now rising to 128,320 acres of land.
From a solely profitability perspective, hemp farms can net the farmer around 30,000 dollars per acre. Comparatively, the recently trendy soybean can only net 500 dollars per acre.
This is a stark contrast to times in the late 80s when the US government destroyed its last remaining stockpile of hemp seeds as to conform with new federal prohibition. Within the US, hemp was a viable and legal crop spanning through the 18th and 19th centuries, only gaining a banned status after the controversial war on drugs and the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 which banned the production of industrial hemp.
Coming full circle in 2019, the United States is now the third largest global hemp producer, closing in behind China and Canada.
Satisfying the environmentally friendly minded, hemp is much more sustainable than most traditional crops as it requires less water to grow and, in most cases, no pesticides are needed as the plant naturally repels pests. Hemp also breathes in CO2 as it grows whilst also detoxifying the soil by transforming contaminating metals and preventing further soil erosion.
Demand needs supply
Around 14% of American adults are currently taking CBD, equating to an enormous 49 million people. Usage has risen in correspondence to last year’s change in federal law – the long awaited US Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the official narcotics list, making the controversial crop legal to grow and produce.
With the supply chain growing exponentially in accordance to demand, the rise in interest in hemp is fuelled by the increasing awareness of potential health benefits as well as the optimistic view on future laws changing in favour for industrial hemp growth, alongside the increasing demand for hemp and cannabidiol-based products.
While mostly used for industrial products, hemp is also useful in creating an array of commercial items such as paper, textiles, clothing, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, animal feed and biodegradable plastics. CBD is also extracted from hemp, which is defined by law as cannabis sativa with 0.3 percent or less THC content.
A congressional research paper states that impressively, the global hemp market consists of more than 25,000 products within nine main submarkets; agriculture, textiles, recycling, automotive, furniture, food/beverages, paper, construction materials and personal care.
The multitude of uses make hemp one of the most versatile crops available. However, up until recently its main use in the agricultural realm was for animal and bird feed, as a 2013 studyshowed that of the estimated 6,000 tonnes of hemp seeds per annum produced in Europe, 95% were used for such purposes.
The first and only hemp seed bank in the US has officially begun construction in upstate New York. The Industrial Hemp Germplasm Repository at Cornell University’s AgriTech facility will be undertaking the “characterising, maintaining and distributing seeds, while also helping to identify genes for pest and disease resistance”.
The federally-funded project was kickstarted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who led a legislative charge to finalise the program and eventually secured 500,000 dollars in federal cash to begin construction of the seed bank.
PanXchange, a physical commodities OTC market structure solutions provider, announced the launch of the industry’s first industrial hemp exchange. The new company aims to improve efficiency and pricing transparency for producers, processors and end-users by starting a legitimate online market place for hemp contracts.
“It’s the fastest growing market I’ve ever seen,” said Julie Lerner, the founder of PanXchange, ahead of a CBD and hemp expo in Miami where she moderated a panel of hemp growers.
“Despite the massive market demand for industrial hemp, the ability for producers to transact with processors and end-users in a transparent, efficient manner is woefully inadequate.”
Risky game for farmers?
The profits in hemp are clearly unrivalled, but there is still the ever-looming chance that the FDA could suddenly slap strict regulatory guidelines on CBD, which could destroy millions of dollars worth of potential profits and the livelihoods of farmers.
While the FDA is still in the midst of researching whether the uses and effectiveness of CBD products are as they claim, the circumstances of the unknown has not put off farmers who see the opportunity to farm hemp whilst waiting for a solid answer.
While the new farming bill shows optimism for the future of hemp farming, it is not the final yes confirmation some were hoping for. Although hemp is now officially regarded as an agricultural product, strict regulations still hang over the plant as any crop found with more than 0.3% THC would be considered marijuana which is still federally illegal.
Additionally, the federal government and individual states are required to share regulatory power over all hemp production, with states having to submit their programs for monitoring the hemp production to the USDA for approval. States that decide not to create their own individual plans will have to abide by the federally run program.
Source: The Leaf Desk
